A woman who fought to clear her name after being convicted of the murder of her aunt in 1993 has died just weeks before finding out whether she would be granted an appeal.

Susan May, 68, had been suffering from cancer and died on Wednesday night according to the Friends of Susan May campaign group.

Susan, from Royton, Oldham, spent 12 years in prison after being found guilty of killing her aunt Hilda Marchbank who was found beaten and suffocated with a pillow. She always maintained her innocence.

The prosecution said a blood-stained hand print on the wall of Mrs Marchbank’s bedroom in Royton was Ms May’s.

But fingerprint expert Arie Zeelenberg, former head of the Dutch national police fingerprint service, recently claimed there is ‘overwhelming evidence’ that the marks were comprised of sweat and not blood.

He examined high resolution photographs, which were not seen by the jury, of the marks on the wall. His report concludes: “There is no evidence that the finger marks attributed to Susan May were placed in blood.

“In fact there is overwhelming evidence that they were not comprised of blood but of sweat.”

Friend and campaigner Geoff Goodwin said: “It became the focus of the whole of her life. When she was in prison she would get locked in her cell at 6pm and she’d spend all night writing letters here, there and everywhere trying to demonstrate her injustice.

"She was a caring and kind person who simply wasn’t capable of that kind of violence and although she hasn’t seen justice in this life we will continue to campaign to clear her name.”

The Criminal Cases Review Commission, set up to review possible miscarriages of justice, had agreed to investigate whether her case should be referred to the Court of Appeal.